shorshewitch's reviews
281 reviews

1) wish the spells were more impactful. The Hindi jarred it for me. Why Hindi? Even English would have done it good. Or the best would be invention of a new language altogether. Tantrism language. 2) The story building is very good. 3) Editing should have been tighter, some parts felt stretched. Some continuity issues like Chotu suddenly starts becoming an "it" from "she". No clue what happened to Lala. Those sorts. 4) the character building is good. And the description of all the species and races. The imagination is absolutely brilliant. The magic system is nice. 5) will I recommend it? - yep. Loads of content warnings though. Death of children, animals, plenty gore. 

Initial thoughts  - 

1) Thought provoking 
2) subtle caste class commentary in the first half that becomes a significant theme in the second half 
3) Must be absolutely awesome reading it in Kannada. 
4) Ends abruptly. I wish there was more. 
5) Juxtaposition of personal and political, mundane and extraordinary 

A pretty good book club pick. There are so many things to discuss, it becomes difficult to review. 

I had picked it up as a part of  #translatedgemsbookclub #crimefiction theme for January'24.

I will add a detailed review later. For now, let me just say that Vivek has given some newer, much needed, significant perspective to me, someone who thinks she is an lgbtq+ ally. The discovery that there is still so much left to learn, is sharpened and highlighted by Vivek's book and a lot of her personal experiences. I am going to keep coming back to this book, because Vivek is extremely eloquent and has immense clarity of thought, even if she says she is still in the process of working on her trauma. The book is very tiny, but very powerful.